grace of death and promises
by fool-kitty
Summary: The girl with a still broken heart and the boy too young to grasp the meaning.


_Summary: The girl with a still broken heart and the boy too young to grasp the meaning._

_A/N: Quite personally, I don't like Ken. He sort of rubbed me the wrong way in the game. Then my friend who's lucky enough to go to Japan watched Midsummer Knight's Dream. She told me what happened and my heart freakin' broke. So here is the remedy that barely worked for me._

_I also felt ashamed at my lack of Minako, so two birds with one stone._

* * *

Ken was an adult stuck in the body of a growing child. At least, that was how he'd always thought of it. Forced to grow up beyond what his physical body looked like, he could no longer live his life without tasting bittersweet revenge on his tongue.

"Hey, Ken-kun!" Minako greeted him with a bright smile. She drank out of her mug – an abnormally bright red cup that assured no one would take it without her noticing – and sat down next to him. "Are you busy?"

He gulped out of both nervousness and excitement. What could she possibly want? After a month of living together, he still wasn't used to anything involving the girl currently poking his cheeks. "Ah, nothing much…just thinking."

Crimson orbs watched him earnestly. "Do you want to go somewhere with me? I need some company and Aigis is surprisingly busy with Mitsuru at the moment."

"…I suppose it's fine." He swatted away her hands. "Lemme go get my coat."

He left before she could do anything else to sway him off his original goals.

See, that was the hard part when dealing with Minako. She was so pure with good intentions always in mind. She was approachable, yet mysterious. Patient, yet stubborn. Exuberant, yet quiet. It made a person feel self-conscious when being so close to something like that.

It made Ken want to reconsider going through with his plans for revenge and he still wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

* * *

She was beautiful. In the moonlight, the features that usually stood out – _her bright ruby eyes, her shapely face, her entire figure_ – were highlighted by the luminescent glow. She looked ethereal and so beyond the mere description of being human.

"Thanks, Ken-kun!" She gave him another cheeky smile. "I've been waiting to talk to you. It's like you've been avoiding me!"

Was she _too_ perfect? Ken put a lot of thought into that particular question before in the privacy of his room. After all, the girl was unlike any other he'd ever known. He gave her a little grin, feeling bad for giving her a slightly dubious one. "You're thinking too hard, Minako-san. I've just been busy."

"Of course." She kept walking, leading him to a rather familiar place. "Ken-kun is so very responsible and mature, what with his Neofeatherman collection and cosplay – "

"A-ah, I thought we weren't going to talk about that!"

She giggled at his fluster. "Sorry, sorry. It's just so cute!"

…if it made the girl happy, then could he really complain? Ken held back the spluttering (though there wasn't much he could do with the faint blush coloring his cheeks) and pulled together a somewhat genuine smile. "I-if you want, y-you could watch the show with me…it's on every Sunday."

She mulled on the offer, brows scrunching up in thought. He wasn't sure if she was actually thinking about it - _please be thinking about it_ - or letting him stew in agony for a bit.

"Usually," she hummed in contemplation, "I'm out with some of my friends from school. But I suppose I could make an exception for you, Ken-kun."

O-oh…thanks." The blush on his face was ten-fold now. "If you don't mind me asking, where are we going?"

She stilled for a brief second, completely unlike her earlier demeanor, before turning her attention back on the street. Somehow they seemed to have made it to her destination without him realizing it until now. An arch hung over their heads, a sign stating –

The Iwatodai Shrine Cemetery – oh.

"We're here to visit someone important to me." She walked down the pathway, making an effort to keep up the strong mask. "He should be right around here..."

She searched for a moment before exclaiming a quiet, "ah, I've found him."

Ken was a smart boy, so he had some reluctance at approaching what should be a private moment. Noticing that he was staying back from a short distance that was slowly growing, Minako grabbed his hand and lightly tugged him forward.

"I-I shouldn't be here, Minako-san." Ken frowned. "This is your private-"

His eyes skirted over the gravestones, brief noting wilting flowers and various gifts. Some were simply the usual white daisies and carnations and picture frames. But Ken's heart tore just a little at seeing stuffed animals propped up beside some of them.

"It's fine. I'm sure nii-san would like to have some…company other than me." She probably didn't catch the tremor in her voice. However, all of that was lost on him, for he decided to dwell on her statement.

"Wait…brother?" In a slight daze, he barely registered that she had stopped. "You have a brother?"

It was quite rude on his part. Minako didn't call him out on it, but it still prickled at her if the small downward twitching of her lips were anything to go by. Feeling slightly bashful, Ken let his attention drift to the tombstone, noting the weathered rock and the engraved writing on it.

_Here lies Arisato Minato, a boy who was lost too soon and left behind a doting sister._

"Today is nii-san's birthday." Minako spoke suddenly, which jarred Ken out of his stupor. She laid a hand on top of the marble. "Nii-san died when I was little, but I haven't forgotten about him. Every year, I make an effort to celebrate his birthday." She took in a shaky breath.

"This is just the first year I've actually been able to be here for him."

Orphan. Entire family killed a long time ago. Ken remembered hearing the news from Yukari and Akihiko, both feeling a need to tell Ken so that he'd know why she is the way she is now. So no, the talk of death on her side of the family wasn't surprising in the least, partly due to his own experiences and the revelation from his senpais.

But they never told him about a brother.

"See, me and nii-san were twins. Born at the same time, but a different gender. I don't remember the term for it, but he was basically my other half." She knelt and clasped her hands together in a prayer. "My mother thought it'd be funny to name us Minato and Minako just to remind us about being inseparable twins. I thought it was embarrassing, but nii-san just smiled and accepted it. He was always the better person when it came to things like that."

"He…sounds like an amazing guy." Ken commented honestly. She had never shared anything of this magnitude before, so his cognitive abilities were stunned at the moment. He sat down next to her, copying her movements.

She hummed in agreement. "He promised me that he'd always protect me. He lived up to his namesake right up…till the very end."

Ken didn't know what to say back. The adult inside of him wanted to say _something_, anything that would cheer up the girl beside him. It isn't right for such a beautiful girl to be grieving like this. However, there was a sort of resonance between her and the still upset child inside Ken that gave him pause.

"Nii-san would have been eighteen now. OF course, since we're twins, I'm also eighteen as well." She laughed, a bitter sound that rung in his ears and didn't belong to such a sweet girl. "I know Yukari and Junpei are planning a surprise party for me when I go back to the dorm, but I can't bring myself to fake a smile right now."

Before he could choke it back, he vocalized the first thought that came to mind. "It's okay to be sad, Minako-san. I'm sure your brother would be happy to know you still think about him like this."

And it was the truth. That was the rationale he had adopted after his mother's passing. Why hide the tears? Isn't it okay for him to miss his mother? Wasn't it the same as crying when your parents were gone too long and you wanted them back? Despite his musings at being an adult, he still acted like a child if only to stay closer to his mother.

"T-thanks, Ken-kun." She sniffled, holding back tears. "Nii-san would have loved to meet you."

"Aa, I'm sure he would have been a very nice guy." A light cold breeze blew across his face. "Tell me about him."

"E-eh?" Despite her grief, it appeared that she was still capable of some embarrassment. "Why?"

He huddled into himself, staring at the grave. "I'm sure Minato-san would like to hear happy memories."

Whether she took affront at him using her brother's given name, it didn't matter. Minako gave him a long heavy look, crimson eyes piercing into the side of his face. Ken faced her, noticing the hesitance lingering in her eyes. But he could also see the want to share a bit of her brother and the happiness from her memories. She took a deep breath and slowly, the tension seeped out of her.

"…nii-san was a quiet person." She started off, sounding fairly wistful. "He didn't talk a lot and he always had a thing for daydreaming and sleeping. He'd prefer to be by himself than socialize with others…I can't imagine what he'd be like now."

"Sounds like he was a distant guy." Ken returned his gaze to the boy's grave, feeling a strange feeling in his chest about the boy.

She shook her head in adamant disagreement. "See, nii-san stayed out of the way most of the time, but when you were close to him, he was completely different. He was still quiet, but you could tell he enjoyed himself. He smiled and he joked and played around and he always made mother smile -" She stopped herself and closed her eyes wearily. "Nii-san was so much better than I was."

"That's not true!" Ken bellowed out before he could take it back. "Minako-san is kind and sweet and caring and- and thoughtful! Don't say that about yourself because I like you for who you are!"

The silence was deafening on both of their parts. For Ken, it was the sheer shock of letting such thoughts through his mental filters and actually yelling at her. For Minako though, it could have been anything at this point, from the outburst in general to the contents of said outbursts or even just the sobering thoughts of her brother. Ken wouldn't know where to start.

The nice part about Minako was that she had lots of social tact, one in which Ken desperately needed right now. She regained her composure and looked at him with an empty expression. Oh god, surely she was ready to yell back at him and holding back all her anger.

"…nii-san always used to scold me about that too. It's…sort of nice to actually hear it from someone else once in a while."

He was definitely not expecting the soft smile or her leaning _closer_ (!) –

Her lips were warm on his cheek. The cool air was suddenly replaced with a hot feeling circulating throughout him. Her lip gloss was wet on his cheek, but Ken could feel more than just what he could touch. There was affection and _warmth and love_-

When she pulled back, she had a splash of pink on her face.

"A-ah, what was that for?" He laid a hand over his cheek, feeling a hot warmth heating up his hand. "I-I didn't really…do anything."

Surprisingly, she stood up with a sort of enthusiasm that he wasn't expecting (and probably never will get used to it). "Silly, that's for cheering me up. Now, c'mon, I'm sure everyone is getting antsy over my return."

She held out a hand to him, standing over him with a halo of moonlight behind her. He hesitantly took her hand – _a shock running through his entire body at a single touch and made him feel_ – and pulled himself up.

Just as they were starting to leave, she turned to face him with a determined expression. He flinched at just how focused she was.

"When you get older, you can have more than just a kiss on the cheek." She winked mischievously. "Nii-san would definitely approve."

His throat ran dry. His mind reeled at the implications of that statement. "W-what d-do you mean?"

"Let's go, Ken-kun!" She skipped out of the cemetery, tugging him the same way they had came in. "Party time!"


End file.
